Sunnyvale’s homeless find hope in Downtown Streets Team

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(photo Jacqueline Ramseyer/SVCN/January 31, 2013)Phillip Houston cleans up the crosswalk on North Fair Oaks Avenue as a member with Downtown Streets Team in Sunnyvale on January 31. Downtown Streets Team employs a Work-First model in which members of the homeless community have the opportunity to rebuild their lives through a volunteer work-readiness program. In exchange for food/housing vouchers and services, team members sweep streets, line soccer fields, perform janitorial work, run kitchens, clean environmental habitats, and much more.

(photo Jacqueline Ramseyer/SVCN/January 31, 2013)Downtown Streets Team employs a Work-First model in which members of the homeless community have the opportunity to rebuild their lives through a volunteer work-readiness program. In exchange for food/housing vouchers and services, team members sweep streets, line soccer fields, perform janitorial work, run kitchens, clean environmental habitats, and much more. From left are Team Leader Rodney Moy, Mark McCredden, Deniece Fuchs, and Jodi Ferguson.

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(photo Jacqueline Ramseyer/SVCN/January 31, 2013)Mark McCredden, left, Jodi Ferguson, and Phillip Houston, along with the rest of the Downtown Streets Team, clean up the neighborhood around Fair Oaks Park in Sunnyvale on January 31.

(photo Jacqueline Ramseyer/SVCN/January 31, 2013)Deniece Fuchs, second from left, Phillip Houston, center, and Team Leader Rodney Moy work with the rest of the Downtown Streets Team, cleaning up the neighborhood around Fair Oaks Park in Sunnyvale on January 31.

A round of applause erupted throughout the Fair Oaks Park Community Center the day Lainie Graham and Michael Bongiorno received their Downtown Streets Team T-shirts.

The Sunnyvale couple had been struggling with homelessness for about two years after Bongiorno’s intermittent construction and remodel work ended. When Graham was physically assaulted during a robbery, they no longer felt safe nor could afford to rent their two-bedroom apartment off Murphy Avenue. So they headed for Clear Lake in hopes of finding work.

When they couldn’t, they returned to Sunnyvale to live in their car.

A friend told them about the Downtown Streets Team, a nonprofit group that fights homelessness through a work-first model program. Graham and Bongiorno went to five meetings–two in Palo Alto and three in Sunnyvale–before they were finally able to join.

The warm reception brought smiles to the couple’s faces. They had been on the waiting list for about a month before officially joining the group on Feb. 5.

In exchange for food, housing vouchers and services, team members sweep streets, line soccer fields, perform janitorial work, run kitchens and clean environmental habitats, in addition to many other tasks.

The team connects with local government officials, law enforcement, businesses and volunteers to create job opportunities and hands-on case management for the homeless, who earn everything they receive.

“We have been working at the Sunnyvale Armory Sunday and Saturday mornings on the beautification team, and we love it,” said Graham, 40. “It means a lot to me; the team is like family to us now. I would like to see [the nonprofit agency] grow as well and go to other cities. I will definitely continue with it and would love to take on a leadership position.”

Since joining DST, Graham discovered her breast cancer has returned for a fourth time, but will get help with medical insurance to get treatment as well as dental work.

“It’s all been happening real quick; it’s the most awesome feeling. I’m a survivor, but I don’t think I could have gotten through this if it weren’t for the Street Team,” Graham said. “Michael and I would definitely be in our vehicle still if it weren’t for them. Now, we’re applying for an apartment.”

The Sunnyvale team has been meeting at Fair Oaks Park every Wednesday at noon since August 2012. The entire team sits together–members in their yellow shirts, leaders in green and supervisors in black.

A white board lists the day’s agenda and future events. Items include bills and rent assistance, how to get Clipper cards for transit, case management, criminal record clearance, employment assistance and community building events.

The program was developed as part of a solution to local panhandling and blight in Palo Alto in 2005 and has grown exponentially. The nonprofit started with a $25,000 budget and four team members and now has nearly 100 members and a budget of $1.7 million. In just the last year, staff has grown from six to 14 and teams have expanded to San Jose, Sunnyvale and San Rafael.

“We feel this is ground zero–Fair Oaks Park–for homeless issues in Sunnyvale,” said Chris Richardson, director of program operations. “Not only are we right across the street from the armory, but this is the hot spot.”

Prospective volunteers must attend these meetings each week to preserve their place on the waiting list until they become team members.

Participants can volunteer for up to 20 hours per week and are rewarded with vouchers. The first goal is to get into a shelter or permanent housing. Next is finding permanent employment.

After a 30-day probationary period, volunteers can take part in the job search skills seminar in which they will construct a résumè with staff /volunteer professionals, take part in practice interviews, complete a master application, and ultimately transition into permanent employment. Volunteers also have the opportunity for promotions based on their skill sets, leadership abilities and ambitions.

About 30 percent of funding comes from public support, with a large amount also coming from government grants such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).

“We continue to get calls from all over the country asking if they could use our model,” said Ann-Marie Meacham, senior development and communications director. “So, it’s just an amazing growth pattern for us right now. It’s really exciting because it’s really all about what our team members want to accomplish.”

The first day DST came to Sunnyvale, there was a waiting list.

“It’s getting bad,” Richardson said of the waiting lists. “It shows that we’re needed and that people want to utilize us, but it also breaks our heart when people have to wait two, three months to get on the team.”

In eight years, the team has helped more than 100 participants find jobs and another 100 find permanent housing.

“I think what’s so unique about our program is that it’s such an intensive approach, so if someone can’t get to the doctor, our case managers will take them, and I don’t know of any other nonprofits that do that,” Meacham said. “Maybe we’re not affecting thousands of people each year, but the way that we’re affecting them is so life changing.

“No one does it quite the way we do it, which isn’t necessarily a testament to us but more of a testament to our team members really wanting to change their lives.”

One such team member is Michael Davis. The 64-year-old had frequent stints in jail, panhandled to keep his wife of 35 years sheltered and struggled with drug use.

“I’m going on six years now with the Streets Team,” Davis said. “I’ve been in a lot of programs and institutions, but I’ve never been part of one that lets you be a part of what you need to do for you. I decided I wanted to be a part of it, so I started working my way up and now I’m operations supervisor and have been for three years.”

Since Davis joined the team, he earned himself a car, found an apartment with his wife in Santa Clara and won the Junior League of San Jose Crystal Bowl volunteerism award. He actively works with the Streets Team to further develop its outreach initiatives.

“I was part of the problem; now I’m part of the solution,” Davis said. “All this stuff lets me know that I’m not wasting my time. Now, I’m all about changing someone else’s life. Giving is way more satisfying than receiving.”

The team continues to find new ways to give as it grows.

In a unique partnership with the city, the Streets Team will get to be the referral agency for some of Sunnyvale’s CDBG grant money to be used for tenant base rental assistance (TBRA) coupons that will be given to 15 qualified candidates.

The city has “done everything they can to give us the tools to succeed here–not only the money and the project to begin with, but they also backed it up with staff time and energy and now these TBRA coupons,” Eileen Richardson said of the city. Richardson is the team’s executive director who was also a 2013 Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Women of Influence award winner.

I don’t know anyone else that’s doing it the way we’re doing it,” she added.

The team is eager to take on new roles as it continues to develop its existing projects and evolving services.

“The main thing is to work with the communities in Santa Clara County and go deeper,” said Richardson. “San Jose is the 10th-largest city in the country, with a massive homeless issue, and Santa Clara County as a whole is way up there, too. So, it’s about partnering with folks like the city of San Jose, Destination Home, and EHC LifeBuilders to truly try to end homelessness here.”

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